TV Overnights: Comeback success evades Alan Partridge yet again
Last night, after years of waiting and armed with nothing but blind faith, the true believers were rewarded as Alan Gordon Partridge returned to our TV screens after a nine year absence. It was all change for the man that perfected the balance between chit-chat and analysis, as he left the BBC behind to seek out a brighter future. Like Luke Skywalker defecting to the Galactic Empire, Steve Coogan dragged his creation away from the BBC all the way to the glamorous and dizzying heights of digital TV. The Sky Atlantic deal will see the Fosters-funded web-only shorts Mid Morning Matters, from 2010, re-edited as a TV show but not before an hour of all-new Alan.
Alan Partridge: Welcome to the Places of My Life (9pm) saw the influential regional celebrity guide us around the intimate parts of his region, giving us glimmering insights in to places that made Alan who he is today. While Sky Atlantic’s Monday evening line-up attracted many column inches, it failed to attract many actual viewers. Only 216,000 viewers tuned in to catch the pleasure walk with Alan, through the ‘Wales of the East’, resulting in a 1% audience share.
This was followed immediately afterwards by another Armando Iannucci joint, the trans-Atlantic cousin to The Thick of It, Veep (10pm). The first episode of the series, based around the day to day activities of the American Vice President, saw Julia Louis-Dreyfus counteracting the Seinfield curse by cursing. Quite a lot. The satirical snipping pulled in less of an audience than Alan’s Norwich ramblings, with only 95,000 viewers tuning in (a .5% share). Next up was Kathy Burke’s nostalgic sitcom Walking & Talking, based on her life as a teenager, which saw the audience for the channel dropping to 48,000 viewers. Despite a night of critically acclaimed comedy, nabbing the rights to popular quality shows such as Mad Men and Game of Thrones and co-producing edgy home-grown drama Hit & Miss, Sky Atlantic can’t quiet seem to catch the mainstream break it deserves.
Meanwhile in the land of popular approval, Coronation Street (ITV1, 7:30pm) reigned supreme. The first episode of the night saw Nick Tilsley decide to make his personal life even messier than ever by confessing his love to ex-wife/prostitute/cocaine fan/lap dancer Leanne. The 7:30pm episode attracted 7.9 million viewers (a 39% share), the biggest audience of the night, with the second episode at 8:30pm netting a slightly smaller 7.6 million.
EastEnders at 8pm on BBC One wasn’t too far behind, with a 34% audience share. The soap attracted 7.5 million despite the Janine and Michael storyline being injected with some fresh misery and trauma in the form a premature baby. Meanwhile on Channel 5 Big Brother continued to straddle the ‘one million viewers’ line, with the latest catch up netting a 5% share.
Overnight data is available each morning in mediatel.co.uk’s TV Database, with all BARB registered subscribers able to view reports for terrestrial networks and key multi-channel stations.